Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 May 31;10(11):2447.
doi: 10.3390/jcm10112447.

Behavioral, Emotional and Social Apathy in Alcohol-Related Cognitive Disorders

Maud E G van Dorst  1   2 , Yvonne C M Rensen  1 , Masud Husain  3   4 , Roy P C Kessels  1   2   5   6
Affiliations

Behavioral, Emotional and Social Apathy in Alcohol-Related Cognitive Disorders

Maud E G van Dorst et al. J Clin Med. .

Abstract

Apathy is a fundamental neuropsychiatric symptom of Korsakoff's syndrome (KS) and has also been reported in patients with alcohol use disorder with no (AUD) or less severe cognitive impairments (ARCI). However, research on the nature of apathy is limited in these groups. Aim of this study was to examine the multidimensional nature of apathy in patients with KS, ARCI and AUD. Moreover, we examined differences between apathy ratings by patients and their professional caregivers, and related apathy to everyday functioning and overall cognition. Twenty-five patients with KS, 25 patients with ARCI and 23 patients with AUD participated in this study. Apathy was measured using the apathy motivation index (AMI), which distinguishes behavioral, emotional and social apathy. Both patients and professional caregivers reported social apathy as the most prominent symptom, compared to behavioral and emotional apathy. Apathy ratings did not differ across the three patient groups. Discrepancies between patient and caregiver ratings were observed in patients with KS and ARCI, with more severe apathy reported by caregivers. Caregiver-reported behavioral and social, but not emotional, apathy was related to everyday functioning. These results show that apathy is present in a substantial proportion of patients with alcohol addiction with or without cognitive impairments.

Keywords: Korsakoff’s syndrome; alcohol use disorder; alcohol-related cognitive impairments; apathy; neuropsychology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. NISPA had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Individual mean ratings of behavioral, emotional and social apathy on the apathy motivation index in patients with alcohol use disorder, alcohol-related cognitive impairments and Korsakoff’s syndrome as reported by patients and caregivers.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Scatterplots (with regression lines) showing the correlations between the patient and caregiver reports for the subscales of the apathy motivation index and the patient competency rating scale (* p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Crews F.T., Buckley T., Dodd P.R., Ende G., Foley N., Harper C., He J., Innes D., Loh E.W., Pfefferbaum A., et al. Alcoholic neurobiology: Changes in dependence and recovery. Alcohol Clin. Exp. Res. 2005;29:1504–1513. doi: 10.1097/01.alc.0000175013.50644.61. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Harper C. The neuropathology of alcohol-related brain damage. Alcohol Alcohol. 2009;44:136–140. doi: 10.1093/alcalc/agn102. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Oscar-Berman M., Maleki N. Alcohol dementia, Wernicke’s encephalopathy, and Korsakoff’s syndrome. In: Alosco M.L., Stern R.A., editors. The Oxford Handbook of Adult Cognitive Disorders. Oxford University Press; New York, NY, USA: 2019. - DOI
    1. Walvoort S.J.W., Wester A.J., Egger J.I.M. Neuropsychologische diagnostiek en cognitieve functies bij alcoholabstinentie [Neuropsychological assessment of cognitive functions and alcohol abstinence] Tijdschr. Psychiatry. 2013;55:101–111. - PubMed
    1. Arts N.J.M., Walvoort S.J.W., Kessels R.P.C. Korsakoff’s syndrome: A critical review. Neuropsychiatry Dis. Treat. 2017;13:2875–2890. doi: 10.2147/NDT.S130078. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources